World Cup 2010 Finale

The games have all been played and we are now able to breathe a little sigh of relief. In my mind the World Cup lived up to all the hype..except for maybe the final. Holland and Spain was set to be a great game between two European titans. Now, don't get me wrong the game was good. Both sides had their chances, really good chances, and if it wasn't for some outrageous goal tending regulation time would not have ended in a nil-nil draw. After seeing the Dutch play several games during the tournament they looked to be in a great position to knock off the European Champions. But when the game started they started to play dirty. It kept getting worse, and worse as the game went on. It was like Lindsay Lohan's past 5 years was being played out on the pitch, which meant that it was only a matter before their was a disaster and the verdict came down the dutch were crying in the courtroom.

I got to thinking how a team that played so well went so bad and I wonder if it isn't partially the fault of the ref. I know, everyone blames the ref. The ref set out at the beginning of the match to show who was in control of the game, him. He called penalties that may have been marginal in hopes that the players would adjust and play a more open honest game. How'd that work for you Howard? What ended up happening was the Spanish adapted and the Dutch got upset and instead of concentrating on the game they concentrated on the officiating. The dutch ended the match with 9 players being carded and one receiving a red card.

From our end we can relax. There are no more games to contemplate, hard decisions to be made, no more calculating who is going to miss the match because of consecutive games with yellow cards. The final numbers are in and we have a champion. There were 8 players who entered teams in the elimination round and so in that spirit we'll list the top eight.

In eighth place is "Regina Rocket" Jim Haney, a couple points ahead was Lumpy who had an impressive streak from the quarters on. Al came in tied with Lumpy at 29 points. My dad and I were unable to resolve anything in the father/son battle as we both cane in at 31 points. Steve finished in the money at 32 points, Jamie made a valiant run, and won the other father/son match up, beating Lumpy by 3 points (sorry Lump). But our Champion who had an edge on us by growing up for a time in Germany is Andrew Shareski at 38 points.

Andrew has the honor of carrying the title of...guy who won the free pool, for the next 4 years.

So until Brazil 2014, when the vuvuzela will hopefully be a distant memory, and we can join in with most fanatical of Football fans in celebrating World Cup 2014!